Greg Rucka Archives - Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

I always like to do a post early in the year that looks forward to some of the books I’m most excited about on the horizon in 2015, helps me get pumped for the year and also try to make a mental note of all the projects I’m looking out for. I was ready with my list the first week of January but opted to wait to hear what news came out of Image Expo as they’ve had some truly exciting stuff in the last couple years, this year was no exception and added some great looking titles to my “must haves” list.

All that said, it was a bit hard to predict what I’m most excited about from Marvel and DC because their events (Secret Wars and Convergence, respectively) are even more potentially “line changing” and mysterious than usual. So keeping in mind that that accounts for a likely decreased number of books from both publishers on the list…let’s get going! I organized this by month and then for stuff that has nebulous release dates more a “going forward in 2015” category.

I had a couple people in the comments claim to not know what “female friendly” meant. I don’t know if they were trolls or if the confusion was genuine but I’ve decided to the err on the side of their confusion being genuine and talk about it a little bit this week.

Before we start, let’s be clear, my definition is surely not everyone’s, but this is where I come from when I look at comics (and other media but I’ll try to stick to comics). At the same time, I make no argument that ALL material SHOULD/HAS TO BE female friendly. The world is vast and there’s room for all kinds, including stuff that isn’t female friendly (True Detective would be a great example of something I love that I wouldn’t necessarily call female friendly). And there’s ALSO room for stuff that I hate and find offensive. Censoring creators doesn’t really get us anywhere, it’s not a good way forward to say what can and cannot or should or should not be done when it comes to art. But I can still advocate for, promote, and recommend the stuff that I feel is worthy, and especially given the comics climate we live in now — one in which there is a lot of great female friendly stuff to promote and one in which we still need much much more female friendly stuff to promote — this is a big and maybe even important job, one we can all help to get done right.

Gorgeous relatable female friendly designs like these by David Aja are a big part of why Kate Bishop/Hawkeye has shot to the top of people’s favorite character lists in recent years.

We begin with an ADVANCE REVIEW for DC’s new Gotham Academy #1 by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl. This is spoiler free, so no worries about listening before you’ve had a chance to read. This releases on 10/1 so make sure to keep your eyes peeled if you haven’t already pre-ordered from your shop! Next up is a review of Copperhead #1 from Image by Jay Faerber and Scott Godlewski. Last up (but never least!) is a review of Greg Rucka , Michael Lark, and Santi Arcas’s Lazarus #11 also from Image. Our interview this week is with the incredible Becky Cloonan – co-writer of Gotham Academy, writer of the forthcoming Southern Cross from Image with artist Andy Belanger, writer/artist of the Eisner nominated Demeter and The Mire, and all around badass. After the interview we talk a bit about some of the recent TV/Comics news, Sue has my FAVORITE dramatic reading yet and, after the bumper, we argue about Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, which I maintain is totally stupid.

3 Chicks Review Comics is a podcast featuring female comics lovers and bloggers. Sue from DC Women Kicking Ass and Kelly Thompson from She Has No Head! Tune in to CSBG every other Monday at noon as we review comics and discuss hot topics of the week. In addition to the blogs above, you can also follow us all on twitter as well: Kelly and Sue. Special thanks to Caanan Grall for our incredible 3 Chicks Logo and to Nik Furious for our awesome 3 Chicks theme song.

A couple weeks ago, Girls Gone Geek was running a hashtag on twitter called #DreamComics asking people to pitch their character and creative team that would make up their dream comics at DC and Marvel. There were some great suggestions. Because I was a bit busy I simply gave them a link to my Marvel “Dreamy Lady Team Ups” column from late 2013 instead of coming up with new ideas, but it got me thinking about DC books, which I never did a similar piece for. In truth, I never did a “Dreamy Lady Team Ups” piece (or similar) for DC because it’s just a rough place for me right now. There are so many characters I love there, but – as many of you are well aware – it’s just not a very welcoming place to me right now. I find the treatment of female characters to be pretty appalling and even beyond that the tone is incredibly dark and gritty throughout the universe, and honestly, I don’t understand the universe very well anymore – the ages of characters, what was retconned and what was kept, it’s kind of a mess in my head. However, as I was thinking about it, DC not being a great/welcoming places these days is the best possible reason to come up with a list of what I’d love to see. And so here we are.

Every day this year, I will be examining the artwork on a single comic book story. Today’s artist is Michael Lark, and the issue is Lazarus #1, which was published by Image and is cover dated June 2013. Enjoy!Continue Reading »

Not really though, I’d rather just not have a column and have good books to read and publishers I trust. But that’s not the world we live in, so we get my sad little column.

About two and a half years ago I wrote about Batwoman’s fate as Greg Rucka abandoned the DC Ship, and here we are again, talking about Batwoman’s fate, as her creators are forced to jump ship, and DC scrambles to pretend it was their idea in the first place. Two years is actually a pretty long run, and so if this decision had come a bit more professionally – rather than creators being forced to jump ship in order to save their sanity and honor the stories they intended to tell for the character, it wouldn’t be too bad. But frankly, we could have talked about any number of characters (and books) fates over the last two years at DC (I’m sure somewhere there’s a list of all the creators that have left or been removed from “New 52” books – update: here’s a really great timeline breakdown). There was even a freaking summit about how they (DC) were going to lessen their editorial interference and a further commitment to stabilizing creative teams. That seemed to last about a week.

Inside this episode! An advance review of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s Lazarus #1 from Image and a review of Becky Cloonan’s Demeter (now available digitally on Comixology/Amazon and print through Cloonan’s site). Greg Rucka then joins us to talk everything Lazarus and Lady Sabre. We also spend a good amount of time talking process and about the changes required to comics for digital vs print reading, as well as Greg’s thoughts on comics vs webcomics. All this, PLUS Kelly and Greg go off on a Kickstarter tangent! After the credits…should Greg and I be wearing THESE? Last, but certainly not least, we have an all new DRAMATIC READING from Sue, and you don’t want to miss it!

With the very cool news that Terry Moore’s Rachel Rising has been optioned for television (and that could be a great show that I would LOVE to see) I started thinking about other indie properties (most with complex female characters) I’d love to see optioned for television as either an ongoing or a mini-series. With the advent of shortened series – Netflix’s House of Cards, AMC’s Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Killing all run only 13 episodes (typically) – we’re seeing a rash of new thinking in quality over quantity, which is good for a lot of comic book properties with world building or effects issues. Most of the best shows out there right now run short seasons: Showtime’s Homeland has 12 per season. Game of Thrones and Newsroom are only 10! The Walking Dead began with a 6-episode half season, then moved to a “full” 13, and for its last season delivered 16 – but still short of the formerly typical 22-episode season. Add to that a rash of recent high-quality mini-series like HBO’s six-part Mildred Pierce or Sundance’s 7-part Top of The Lake and we’re in a really interesting period of television where we’re seeing a huge uptick in great TV that equal some bold choices in both content and in the way that content is delivered. All of it makes me optimistic that smart comics properties that might have been a tough sell even a couple years ago might be more viable now. So what are five at the top of my list? Glad you asked!

Last month, I didn’t get a chance to finish all of these before I went to the convention in Seattle, and then I was busy when I got back. So this month, we get a double dose of trades and books I’ve read and such. That means this is really long, and I apologize for that!Continue Reading »

Inside this episode! We have an advance review of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples Saga #7 and Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth’s Stumptown #1. We then have Maddy back for good old times! We do another HODGEPODGE talk this week and then Sue gives us a chick of the week that just got her own book! Katana! Ooh! And don’t forget to vote in the finals for the DC WOMEN KICKING ASS Most Kickass DC Woman Tournament! – Listen after the credits break for the finalists (and for me being a baby)!

Tired of a million (mostly) inconsequential zero issues from DC? Tired of the never-ending AvX event? Here’s a little something for everyone from the Indies…

THE VOYEURS BY GABRIELLE BELL

Every year, one way or another I find myself re-reading Gabrielle Bell’s Lucky. And I suspect her new collection The Voyeurs will also become a yearly re-read for me. Full of wonderful autobiographical tales that are equal parts hilarious and insightful, Bell has become an absolute master of autobio comics. I bought the The Voyeurs from Bell directly at her site, and if you order now you can add on her awesome July Diary for not much more. The book is also available in finer comic and book stores and if you must, Amazon as well.

Inside this episode! We have an advance review of Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth’s Stumptown #1 and Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye #2. We then have an awesome interview with Greg Rucka talking about Stumptown, Lazarus, Punisher, his time at DC – including the scoop on what actually caused him to leave DC, the new Wonder Woman pilot, and everything else we can think of! Chick of The Week this week is a long overlooked lady who is having a hard time in recent months at DC – Lois Lane!

Here are the breaks:

Stumptown #1 – 01:00

Hawkeye #2 – 08:43

Greg Rucka Interview – 24:15

Chick of The Week (plus Wonder Woman talk and a few other goodies) – 108:48

I’ve been reading a bunch of Black Widow stuff in preparation for this, along with the material that I’ve already read and so these are the books that rose to the top for me. I’m sure I’ve missed some things (and I’m sure you’ll tell me) but I’ll just let you know right now I did NOT miss Black Widow: Deadly Origins, Black Widow & The Marvel Girls, and the current Black Widow Strikes mini-series, all of which I found to be quite terrible. Feel free to disagree in the comments, but please don’t assume I didn’t consider them. I did consider them and I found them disturbingly lacking. If you want something really great that Natasha is guest starring in that’s more current than the list below, I’d recommend the very good Winter Soldier ongoing by Ed Brubaker. It’s a great book with a really well written (and drawn) Natasha.

I read in the Marvel Solicits for August that apparently “Hawkeye is the breakout star of The Avengers” which I guess means he gets a shot at an ongoing title while Black Widow is relegated to that truly abysmal mini-series that’s almost over now. So Hawkeye gets Matt Fraction and the brilliant David Aja and Black Widow still gets the equivalent of bupkis. Now, I don’t know what movie the people responsible for these things saw but I have no idea how anyone would walk away with “Hawkeyes as breakout star” from the movie I saw. I like Renner very much as an actor and I have no problems with Hawkeye as a character, but there is just no damn way he outshined Natasha/Scarlett Johansson.